Shadows
by MaiKanon
Summary: When Riku and Sora are still little kids Sora sleeps over for the first time at Rikus place. First everything's alright, but then some shadows show up... could be Riku/Sora if you squint kinda fluffy One-Shot


_**S**__hadows_

''Riku! Get up!''

"Five more minutes…" I mumbled rolling over in bed… seriously, mom knew I needed my

sleep in the morning…

"Riku, seriously get up now!" I cracked one eye open and groaned. The sun wasn't even up yet!

"Well… you wanted it the hard way…" I heard my mom's footsteps getting further away and snuggled deeper into my bed… finally mom gave up!

As I gently drifted back into a sweet dream-world a rather high pitched and energetic "Rikuu~!", followed by the feeling of something jumping on my bed woke me up again… and it didn't stop jumping…

"Riku! Riku! Riku! Riku! Wake up! Wake up! Waaake UP!"… he punctuated every syllable by jumping down on the bed in time with it… as if his shouting wasn't annoying enough…

"Wake up Ri-guwaaaah!"

"Sora! Are you OK?!" I was instantly up and looked down at the boy now lying on my floor after falling off of my bed.

"haha, yeah I just slipped! But it got you to wake up, so it's fine" He told me , smiling happily and rubbing the back of his head, were now, most likely, a bulb was forming.

"Sora! Come down, I'm going now!" came the voice from Sora's mom from downstairs.

"Coming!" he replied to his mom and ran out of my room. Wondering what was going on, I decided to get out of bed and go down. The shock of Sora falling off of my bed woke me up anyways, so whatever.

While I groggily walked down the stairs to where Sora went I got into hearing- range

"…and Sora, be nice you hear me? Don't cause any trouble to Riku's mother and him, ok?"

" 'Course I won't cause any trouble mommy! I'm not a little kid anymore!"

"chuckle, yes my Sora is already a big boy, so I've got nothing to worry about, right?"

"Pft! If there's nothing to worry about 'cause Sora's big, then there's a whole lot to worry

about" I chuckled as I came down

"Riku!" Sora turned around in his moms hug happily, then it dawned on him, that I had just insulted him

"Hey! I _am_ big!" He pouted… I think he intended to glare…

"Sure you are…" Thing is, Sora really was little.

Even thought he was only half a year younger than Riku he was about a head shorter, which meant he was only 90 cm (2,92 feet) high Riku was 111 cm (3,6 feet) high (both him and Riku were already 4 years old now and Sora still didn't reach the edge of a table… which irked him quite a lot)

"Well then, I'm off now! Have fun with Riku, ok?"

"Yup! You have fun too! See you later!"

After Soras Mom was gone we went to bed once more. It was only six o'clock am, so that's totally fine!

~oOo~

Mrs. Hikari was a bit worried about going to the main land and leaving Sora alone with Rikus family. But Mrs. Hayato reassured her, that she and Riku would watch over him the whole time, and if he got homesick he could always call his mother and ask her to come back, even if it would take her about five hours to do so.

Sora had never slept out of his home for a whole night, or at least not without his mother.

While Mrs. Hayato made Pancakes she was thinking about this, but decided that everything would be fine. If Sora spent a whole day with Riku, 24 hours, they'd both be too tired in the evening to even think about homesickness.

After having finished the dough and having set the table for the three of them, since her husband too was on a business trip, she went upstairs to wake the boys up… again.

She silently opened the door to Rikus room and barely held back a squeal. Hurriedly she fetched a Camera, went back in and made a few pictures of little Sora and Riku, lying together on his bed, Rikus arm protectively around Sora, who snuggled against him. Then she proceeded in her actual intention and woke both of them up to get breakfast.

~oOo~

"Yaaay! Pancakes!" Sora squealed and ran down the stairs, nearly tripping over his own feet, but catching himself scantily.

For the love of god, I just couldn't understand how Sora was able to bounce around and be awake like that after just waking up… I went down the stairs accordingly… half asleep.

So, we happily ate pancakes. Sora with loads and loads of maple syrup (why the hell did we give him sugar?!), mom with marmalade and I… took maple syrup too, thought I didn't drown my pancakes in the stuff. My dad was on a business trip, as usual. Oh well, whatever.

After breakfast we played some video-games (mostly Mario) but you know Sora. The kid wasn't able to sit still for too long normally, and a sugar-filled Sora was only able to concentrate on video games for so long, so the rest of the Morning was filled with playing football, sparring and running around.

Actually I loved it when Sora was staying over! Thought I'd never admit it… we, of course, sometimes fought about stupid stuff too, like who could climb a tree faster, which was of course me, or who would win in a race, me as well. Sora would pout at loosing and play offended, but I knew that it wasn't serious and he'd be happily laughing around after a while. I was just stronger and faster than him… seriously it would be strange if that wasn't the case, I mean I'm one head taller than him, and he's just really unathletic.

But sometimes I'd let Sora win. He needed that boost every now and then, plus it was nice to see him smiling brightly for the rest of the day and telling everyone proudly that he had beat me in a race.

Today was one of those days.

We were walking around the houses and the beach just came into view, when I got an idea.

"Race ya to the shore!" I shouted and ran ahead.

"Riku that's not fair, you started sooner!" Sora cried, while running not too far behind me.

"Hahaha! Just run faster, slowpoke!" I laughed and sped up.

"Meany!" Sora called out.

Eventually we reached the beach. That's when I decided to 'trip' and fall flat on my face.

"Riku! Riku, are you ok?! Are you hurt?!" Sora frantically sped up and came to me, not really knowing what to do.

'Seriously, Sora, here I am 'falling' flat on my face just 'by chance' so that he could _easily_ win, and what does he do?! Stop and try to help me…'

"I'm fine"

"Really? You didn't scratch yourself or-"

"Sora!" I interrupted him, before he got too worked up "I fell on Sand! Seriously, both of us have fallen harder and nothing's ever happened!"

"But, but…"

"Come on" I said getting up, walking over to the edge of the water where I flopped down again, shortly followed by Sora who lay down beside me.

We were lying around for awhile just looking at the sky and the ever-changing clouds, guessing what which cloud could be.

After a while we heard an annoying melody, that is known by everyone as the ice-cream-car, coming closer and decided to get up. My mom had given me some money, so that we could buy ice-cream or something to drink, and we were about to do just that. Not the drinking part, but ice-cream. When the car was in reach, we stopped it, and got what we wanted, two Sea-salt ice-creams. Actually Sora had to persuade me to buy one of those things… seriously, why buy ice-cream, that tastes like something that's right next to you… but whatever…

We went back to the beach with our newly acquired treat and continued our cloud-gazing. Somehow, most of the clouds were foot-related, so I'm guessing we were hungry (we only ate ice-cream, that doesn't really fill you up)… we had chicken-clouds, Steak-clouds, Burger-clouds…

After a while we decided to go back and get something to eat…

~oOo~

I loved staying at Riku's place!

For more than one reason. First of all I was able to play with Riku the whole day long!

Second, Rikus mom made really, _really_ great food! She wouldn't just cook deep-frozen Pizza (at least not when I was around) like my mommy does, or warm something from the

refrigerator up. And today was no exception.

When we came back, running, 'cause we started a race again, she was already impatiently waiting for us.

She made a Pizza, and I mean really made!

The dough was already done and rolled out and she had cut tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and salami and we could put all we wanted on our parts of the pizza.

The finished Pizza was actually kinda funny to look at, Rikus mom had icky stuff like olives and artichokes on her part, Riku and I had mostly the same on our parts, only Riku used more flesh, like salami and ham, and I had mostly a margherita pizza. While lunch was in the oven we set the table and told her about our adventures while she put band-aids on our scratches.

The pizza, of course, was delicious! Riku always complained, that he never got any junk-food like McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken, but I liked this homemade foot better! Of course junk-food was yummy too, but sometimes I barely saw my mom during the day because of her work and so we often only ate stuff like that. That's why Riku's Mom was nearly like a second Mom to me, even if she'd never have the same status as mine...

"Sora…" But I had to admit, that Riku's mom really could cook better than mine…

"Earth to Sora!" (haha, Riku translated means Earth…lol)

But my mommy close to never cooked herself, so I couldn't really blame her.

"_Sora!_"

"huh? Wha-what is it, Riku?"

"Nice to know that you're still awake, seriously… what were you even thinking about so

hard?"

"Food…"

"… … You _can't _be hungry again! We just ate a really big pizza! You even stole a bit of mine!" Riku said shocked

"No! I didn't mean it like that! I was thinking about whether your or my mom cooks better!"

"Mine" came Riku's answer without any hesitation.

"Thought now that I think about it, I want some ice-cream…"

"…"

"Rikuuu~"

"Come on, let's play some Mario"

"Awwww, pretty please Rikuuu~"

"Sora! No! we already had some ice-cream and I'm really full now!"

"Meany…" I pouted some, but then gave in…maybe I'd persuade him later on. So, we played some Mario and it was standing 3:2 for me - Yay! I'm winning! - when Rikus mom came in

"Oh come on, you've got to be kidding me! It's such beautiful weather outside and you're sitting in a dark room…" we'd closed the curtains to see the screen better "…playing video games! You should go out!"

"Just a bit longer… I'm winning right now…"

He really was, at least this round, which wasn't good for me. But, lucky me, Riku's mom just went in front of the TV "Mom, You can't just-" and turned it off, thus stopping the game

"Nooooo! Mom seriously, I was winning!"

"Wohooo, that means I'm winning!"

"No you're not! That wasn't fair!"

"It was!"

"Was not!"

"Yes it was!"

"No it wa-"

"_Stop_, both of you, it's just a game! And you're going to go out now so it doesn't matter anyways! Go to the beach, or play football or visit Tidus or something!"

"… Fine, but only if we get some ice-cream" Riku countered

"Yeah! Pretty please can we have some?" I supported trying on my best puppy eyes, which normally got me pretty far.

"Sigh… fine, but Sora, don't tell your mom that I gave you ice-cream two times today"

"Yay! Thank you Mrs. Riku's mom!"

"giggle, really now… I'll get you some munny and you two get ready, ok?"

"Yes Mom/Riku's Mom" we chorused. As we went to the corridor to get our shoes on I thanked Riku too

"What are you thanking me for?"

"For getting your mom to give us ice-cream-munny!"

"Wha- that's… I wanted Ice-Cream myself, it wasn't for you or anything!"

"Hahaha! Still thanks!" I just had to laugh because of the face Riku made and I still giggled

while we were going to the beach.

~oOo~

It was so easy to make Sora happy, just give him some sweets (in this case ice-cream) and he would smile for no end, like an idiot. And that was great. Because, when Sora was happy, I was happy too! He possessed this awesome ability to infect anyone with his feelings, or maybe it was just me, but who was I to decide, and seeing him happy was by far better than seeing him sad.

XxXxXxX

When I first met him I was 3 Years old and soon to be 4 (only half a year away from it!) and Sora had just reached the age of 3. He had moved to Destiny Islands from the main land with his mother and was strolling around, most likely to get to know the Islands he would be living on from now on. That's when I first saw him, and it wasn't really a great sight to behold.

He was surrounded by bullies for reasons I seriously couldn't tell you. Maybe it was because he was new. That's enough of a reason for some kids to kick on weaker ones. And they did that quite literally. So, when I saw the scene, I quickly grabbed an adult (I'm not stupid enough to try stopping several bullies that are far bigger than me _alone_) and ran there, tugging the adult along.

"Hey! Stop that right now!" I shouted to get the bullies attention

"Pft! And why should we listen to you, ki-… Shit he has an adult with him!"

"Come on! Let's get moving, I don't want any problems!" Well yeah… as soon as bullies face someone that's stronger than them they run like babies… thougt… babies can't really run… so, like… uuuuhm… Chickens! That's it, they run like chickens!

So, while they got away, being chased by that adult, I approached the crying bundle on the floor.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, while extending a hand to pat him on the shoulder, to get his attention.

So when I got just that, and he looked up, I came face to face with the bluest eyes _ever_!

I think I stared at him for a while, before realizing, that he had bruises and mud all over him and snot and tears were running down his face.

"Come on, we gotta get you patched up again… where's your mom?" I asked him, while using my sleeve to clean up his face a bit.

"…D-hic-dunnwo…." He sniffled as an answer upon which I frowned. Seriously, how old was this kid? He couldn't be much older than 2… (yeah, Sora had always been little for his age…)

I took him by the hand and led the still crying kid to my house. Mom would know what to do with him, she knew everything!

"So uuuhm… what's your name?"

"hic… S-Sora…"

"I'm Riku" I smiled at him

"Hey, do you want some ice-cream? I got some munny on me!"

The change in his expression was immediate… and _extreme_!

The crying, miserable kid from a few seconds ago was now beaming like a second sun

"Really? You'd share with me?!" and bouncing on his toes from excitement… because of some Ice-Cream. I just couldn't suppress my chuckling.

"Sure, why shouldn't I? we're friends, aren't we?"

If it was even possible, he was smiling even more now. God it was so adorable!

"Yaaaay! My first friend!" he shouted while hugging, or rather jumping at, me, making both of us fall to the floor, which caused him to giggle, which again made me laugh, so we both lay on the floor laughing. But then I realized something

"Wait, why _first_ friend? You surely have some other friends around, right?" I asked. He shook his head

"nope. Me an' my mommy just moved here today, so you're my first friend!"

"Oooh…" Well, that explained why I'd never seen him around, even thought Destiny Island wasn't that big.

After that we got our Ice-Cream and quickly became inseparable, especially after it had turned out, that Sora was living in the same street as me, only a five minutes walk away.

XxXxXxX

After getting our second ice-cream for the day we went down to the beach, where we ate it, played in the sand and shallow water, and just lazed around until the sun went down, so we

went home.

We didn't really eat much for dinner, just some leftover from lunch and bread, while telling my mom about our adventures of the day. Then we watched some movie with knights, princesses and dragons, the usual children's movie…whereat Sora really didn't get, why the knight had to fight the dragon and couldn't just talk to it. He complained about it during the whole movie, until he fell asleep… Sora really was such a GIRL sometimes!

And my mom had sided with him, which only strengthened my statement.

Sadly Sora woke up again, just in time to see the knight slay the dragon (and by the way, while doing so saving the princess, but whatever…) and Sora wouldn't stop going on about how the knight was the real monster and not the dragon, who surely was only lonely (according to Sora) and wanted someone to play with, which was the only reason he kidnapped the princess.

"Sora that's stupid! The dragon wanted to eat the princess!"

"If he had wanted to eat her, he could have done so at the beginning!" hmm, Sora was kind of right with that…

"Surely he wanted to keep her as a special snack or something!"

"But Riku! Think about it! If you were a dragon, living alone in some cave, in some far away mountain, you would be lonely too, right? So he wanted someone to play with!"

"If that _was_ the case, why a stupid princess, and not someone more funny, and not so important?"

"hmmmm… maybe he thought, that when he had the princess more people would come to visit him?"

"…"

"What?!"

"That's just stupid Sora!"

"Is not!" he retorted, while pouting. Oh what a witty answer…

"Is too!" okay, I'm not much better…

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not! And you just don't want to admit, that I'm right!"

"Is too, and am not, and always one time more than you!"

"that's not fair!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"_BOYS_! Stop it, some people on Destiny Island want to sleep, and one of these people just so happens to be me! Have you brushed your teeth yet?" my mom came in, stopping the argument, before it got fully out of hand… I didn't even remember what it was about, but I couldn't lose to Sora… Oh yeah, Dragons!

"Yes!" we answered her at the same time

"hey, Riku's mom, when does my mommy come back?" Sora asked.

"Sora, honey, your mom will come and fetch you tomorrow morning, she had to go to the main land today, for some really important business meeting and can't come back until tomorrow."

And understanding dawned on Sora, while his lips formed an 'o'.

"I prepared a guest bed in Riku's room, so you don't have to worry about where to sleep" my mom told him while smiling

"Ok, Riku's Mom." Sora answered smiling too. I really don't get why mom seemed worried. Sora was just sleeping over. For the first time, ok, but there wasn't any problem in that, right? If anything it was great!

~oOo~

After we went to bed and said goodnight to Riku's mom we were still talking for a bit. I wanted to try and persuade Riku, that the knight was the evil guy, and not the dragon, but he didn't want to talk about it again, so he always changed the subject.

It was a bit weird sleeping in another house. Not that I hadn't slept here before, it just never was night, and if it was my mommy was always there to carry me back home. But today I'll be sleeping here for the entire night, in an unknown bed, without my mommy in reach if I had a nightmare.

Riku had fallen asleep at some point during our talk, which was weird, because normally I fell asleep first. So it was nearly as if I was alone in his room so to entertain myself until I fell asleep I looked around Riku's room. I knew it pretty well, seeing as I spent around every second day at his place to play, and I could call all stuffed animals and teddies by name but somehow they looked sorta scary when I was alone in the room and it was dark like that. They appeared to be looking at me and even moving a bit, so I stopped looking around and thought about other ways to fall asleep. Normally I'd just go to my mommy and ask for some hot chocolate or warm milk with honey, but my mommy wasn't there and I didn't want to wake Riku's. I was even entertaining the thought of counting sheep to fall asleep, but I couldn't understand why doing that should help me in any way. So I went back to surveying the room. Looking out of the window, I found, that it was quite windy tonight but that was normal, seeing as we live on an island. Still the wind made the tree outside swing and creak dangerously, which was making the trees shadows on the wall move around ominously. Watching the shadows move on the walls, making it seem like Riku and me weren't the only people in this room, and hearing the wind howl outside the window gave me the creeps.

'the shadows are only from the trees, only from the trees, there aren't any monsters walking around outside, even thought it really looks like it… NO! No monsters outside! And the scary howling comes from the wind! Just the wind, so I really don't need to be scared!' I chanted to myself while trying to be strong.

But if the monsters weren't outside, maybe they were inside. My stomach did a backflip at that thought and I lifted my blanket up under my chin.

Maybe I should wake Riku up?

No! I couldn't act like a scared girl now and wake him up, right? Riku would definitely be angry with me if I woke him up, and then he would make fun of me!

… Maybe I should go to Riku's mom? Surely she'd know what to do! She's a mom and moms know everything!

But… then I'd have to walk through the house while it was dark… and Riku would be alone with the monster! I couldn't do _that!_

So I gathered all of my courage and looked under the bed and gave a sigh of relief, when there was nothing there but a football, clothes and other stuff.

But the monster could still be somewhere else in the room, like in the cupboard,plus the shadows were still moving around as if they were monsters themselves…

Not wanting to get out of bed I put my blanket over my head and rolled into a ball, like a hedgehog does, trying to tune the shadows and sounds out, which actually worked. Only now it was really dark, and if a shadow decided to attack me I wouldn't even see it…

'Klonk' I promptly sat up, the blanket still over my head, looking around frantically to find the source of the knocking sound. I found it coming from the window and my breath caught. There, scratching and knocking, was a dark, skinny, skeleton-like hand belonging to a long, scrawny arm, trying to open the window!

I started to breath faster ready to jump on Riku's bed to wake him up and run away, but before I really started to panic I realized that it was only a branch. And not even any branch. It was the branch of the tree I always used to climb up to Riku's window, because it stood so neatly right in front of said window, if I was in a hurry and too impatient to wait for someone to open the door after having rung the bell, so actually I was quite acquainted with that tree… I sighed in relief, knowing the danger wasn't a danger at all and my heart began calming down, when I noticed something from the corner of my eye.

It looked like someone was in the room, dangerously near me ,like the knight from the TV-

show, swinging around a sword…

That was it!

I seriously neither wanted to leave my save spot, the bed, and walk around this scary house (it wasn't scary at all during daytime, but now it seemed like every stuffed animal and anything was looking at me!) nor did I want to be alone here and now! So I did the only

reasonable thing there was to do in this kind of situation.

Wake up Riku!

Which was actually easier said than done…

"Riku… Riku wake up, come on…" I whispered while gently shaking him. I didn't want the shadows and boogey man to notice, that I was awake. I shuddered at the thought and concentrated on the task before me again

"Riku… C-come on, wake up!" I started shaking him a bit harder but still didn't dare to raise my voice plus I had to speak around the lump starting to form in my throat. The shadows were really scary and it seemed like they were getting closer! I got goose bumps and felt like I was about to cry… I really needed to hurry up!

I flinched when something flew against the window again. It was surely just a branch again, or something like that, but I didn't want to look in case it wasn't just a branch. When I flinched I accidently dug my nails into Riku's arm 'cause I was still holding it from the try to shake him awake, but he still just wouldn't wake up!

"Sniff…R-Riku… wake up, please…" _sugar_! Tears were already starting to form in my eyes and threatening to fall down, so I shook him really hard and it seemed, like he was waking up at last…!

Rikus eyes fluttered open

~oOo~

I slightly opened my eyes, feeling that my sleep was being disrupted. Something seemed to be shaking me every now and then, and just wouldn't stop! It was really annoying!

I saw that it was still dark outside and decided, that whoever wanted to wake me up could wait until tomorrow.

"Riku! Please d-don't fall asleep again!" and again shaking… wait, wasn't that Sora's voice? What was he doing here? … Oh yeah, he was sleeping over tonight. I thought while slipping back to sleep, only to be shaken awake again.

Ready to snap at my pain in the ass (neck?), also known as Sora, I turned around abruptly and opened my mouth to tell him to stop annoying me like that, only to stop again and stare at him openmouthed.

I didn't expect what I saw… Actually I expected to see a grinning Sora in front of me, who was happy that he got me to wake up, thanks to this stupid prank only to annoy me. But Sora didn't grin.

Before me sat a trembling Sora, with running nose, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall.

My mind was running a mile a minute to figure out what was going on and my mouth didn't do much better work

"Wha-"

"Rikuuu!" he cried while crushing me in an awkward hug. It was really uncomfortable, being held by a sitting person in an iron hug, while you were still lying on the bed

"So-…ra… can't… Breath!" I managed to choke out before suffocating.

"Oh, S-sorry" he sniffed an let go off me, so that I could sit up, with tears in my eyes from the absence of air. I took a look at the always smiling Sora again, to make sure, that I really had seen what I had seen. And sure enough I had, and he didn't just wake me up to tease me. By now he was really crying, and shaking and he looked really scared. What was he so scared of?

"Hey, what's up?" I asked tentatively so that I wouldn't scare him more

"The-… the…. sniff… k-kniwght monstwa's hwear, an' – sniff – an's scwary…!" he sniffed and I moved a bit to the side lifting up my blanket, so he could get on my bed and under my blanket, which he hurriedly and clumsily (he nearly fell down, being entangled in his own sheets) did, before crushing me in a bear-hug again and sobbing. Seriously, where did he take that strength from in his tiny body?! Anyway, back to the more important things, from what I could decipher out of his sniffling and stuttering, there was a 'knight-monster' and it was scary. Wait, what the hell?! Knight-monster?

I returned his hug, in a less brutal and suffocating way, and patted his head a bit to calm him down.

"Come on Sora, there aren't any knights here anymore. They've all died a really long time ago" I told him.

And it was the truth! I've once watched a show about knights, which said, that there haven't been any for many, many years.

"Bwut id's shadwows havn'd!" Sora cried with a muffled voice, because his head was buried in my chest, and currently soaking my PJs with tears. Upon that I furrowed my eyebrows… It's shadows? I didn't know about those… I always thought, that if something was gone, it's

shadow would vanish too…

"The shadows have all died too, along with the knights." So I told him just that.

He shook his head against my chest.

Hmmm… normally he believed everything I said… He seemed really scared. I hadn't seen him like that since… NO, I had _never _seen him like that…!

Should I get my mom? No! I couldn't show weakness now! Plus I'd have to leave Sora here alone or take him along and I think neither was a good idea… I had protected him from bullies, so what could a stupid shadow do?!

I reached down next to my bed, with Sora still clinging onto me, and got my wooden sword, which was next to my bed for obvious reasons (situations like this one).

"I'll protect you from the shadows!"

This caused Sora to look up sceptical

"You know, it's only a shadow! I'm by far stronger than that, and I have my sword right here, so I'll protect you!"

"sniff… R-reawlly…?"

"Of course! No shadow or knight or whatever monster will be able to hurt you as long as I'm here!" I assured him while smirking, thought he still didn't look _too _convinced…

"Look, I'll stay on watch if you want me to, until the sun rises again. And if any shadow shows up, that I can't defeat, which is _very _unlikely, I'll just wake you up and we can run away! Ok?" I told him smiling confidently and warmly

"Have I ever lied to you?" I asked, just to reassure him a bit more. He shook his head

"…Can I stay in your bwed?" he asked with a little voice

I rolled my eyes

"Of course you stay here! That way it's far easier to protect you!"

"But… won't you be tired if you stay awake?" he sounded really tired by now and stifled a yawn, I guess that meant, that he started to calm down

"I'm awake now anyways, thanks to you. So I won't be able to fall asleep for the next few hours anyways!" I reassured him. And it was kinda true too. The shock of seeing Sora cry like

that really woke me up…

"hmmmm… then I'll sleep here…" he smiled and snuggled closer to me. I wrapped my arms protectively around him, still holding onto my sword, watching out for shadows and any other scary things daring to get too close to Sora, who was by now already fast asleep. I smiled at that. I wouldn't let any shadow harm Sora!

Thinking that, I slowly drifted back to sleep too.

~oOo~

Having done a great job in tiring the kids out yesterday, I decided to let them sleep in today. Plus Sora's mom said, that she would come around 9 o'clock and it was 8:30 now, so she should be around soon.

I was a bit worried at first that Sora might have a hard time falling asleep, this being the first time he slept somewhere without having his mother near, so I stayed up quite long, reading, just in case he decided to come to me. But nothing had happened at night, he didn't come to me or anything, so I suppose everything went well.

I was a bit proud of him while thinking that, so I started making pancakes for the boys as a reward for being so brave.

While I stood in the kitchen, humming along to a song playing in the radio, I saw Mrs. Hikari walking in our direction and headed to the door to let her in. We talked a bit about her trip and finished making the pancakes then went upstairs to wake the kids up.

After opening the door to Riku's room I nearly squealed again and looking to the side I saw that Mrs. Hikari had similar problems.

I held my finger to my lips, signaling her to stay quiet and took the camera that was still lying

near Riku's room from the previous day.

The sight in front of us was just too cute!

Sora was snuggled up against Riku, who held him protectively in his arms while holding his toy sword as if he was ready to strike down whatever was there to harm them.

After having taken a good load of pictures (if something like this was going to happen more often, I'd need a Riku-Sora-Photo Album) I proceeded to wake them up and got one of the biggest shocks ever in my live! Riku woke up instantly as soon as I touched his shoulder, before I could even start shaking him, which was a first. Normally it took years to get him out of his dream world!

He glared at me for a second, hardening his grip on Sora and the toy sword, then realized it was me and sighted

"Seriously, mom, warn me before you do that!" he told me while staring at me accusingly.

"Well, Riku, then please tell me how I should warn you before I wake you up?"

"…" I chuckled at that. He could be so stubborn… cute~!

"Wake Sora up, ok? His mom's here and I made some pancakes" I told him and went down again, to find the table already being set by Mrs. Hikari.

"Pancakes!" came a scream from upstairs followed by a crushing sound

"Sora, are you OK?! You shouldn't run around while still being half asleep!"

"hahaha, sorry, I forgot I was at your place, Riku!"

"_still_ you should see a_ WALL_!"

"hahaha, come on, I can already smell the pancakes!"

And down came a smiling Sora with a bump on his forehead, tugging along a grudging Riku.

"Mommy! You're back!" Sora exclaimed, hugging his mother while Riku sat down in front of his pancakes putting syrup on them.

"mornin'" he mumbled. Well at least something. Not everyone could be full of energy the moment they woke up like Sora, and it seems like the awakefullness he had showed this morning was only short lived. I wonder if something had happened yesterday?

"So, how was your day, Sora?" I started listening to the conversation next to me again. Sora was by now sitting on his mother's lap and smiling brightly while reporting his day

"It was great! Me an' Riku were playing the whoooole day long!" he told her, while stretching his arms apart to underline the 'whole'

"An' Riku protected me from the shadows!"

'_choke_' that came from Riku, who was now coughing furiously, so I patted him on the back to help a bit

"The shadows?" Sora's mom asked and looked at me inquisitively. I could only shrug my shoulders at that and listened to Sora's story curious myself

"Yeah! The knight-shadow! Riku protected me the entire night, so I wasn't scared at all! Right, Riku?" Sora asked directing his whole attention to Riku now, while smiling.

"… it was nothing…" he mumbled while blushing and stuffing more pancakes into his mouth.

How cute! He was embarrassed!

"Oh my~ that's so brave and nice of you, protecting my little Sora from the evil shadows" her words were honest, and I'm pretty sure she had a hard time not smiling at her own sentence while saying it

"I'm not little!" Sora said while pouting but then he leaped down from his mother's lap, went to his own plate and ate happily.

Riku didn't say anything at all and blushed even more, which caused me to chuckle.

~oOo~

Mommy was downstairs, talking to Riku's mom and waiting for me to pack up all of my stuff, which wasn't really much.

Riku was kinda silent during this whole morning, he most likely was tired from staying up. So I decided not to annoy him too much, it was after all my fault, that he didn't get enough sleep. He had stayed up all night long to protect me, so the least I could do was to not annoy a sleep-deprived Riku.

"So, I gotta go now…"

"hm"

"I'll come back tomorrow or sometime today, to play again, ok?"

"hm"

~oOo~

Then suddenly Sora hugged me

"Thanks for protecting me from the shadows"

"I-it was nothing! Really"

"Yes it was something, Riku! You're really great! You know, I wasn't scared at all anymore,

after you told me, that you'd protect me!"

I smiled at that

"You know, if that's the case, you can sleep over again, any time you want!"

At that Sora looked at me questioningly

"Well, because I'll protect you again! As long as I'm there, nothing's ever going to harm you! I promise!"

At that Sora smiled again really brightly, even more, than when he got sweets, and hugged me again

"Thanks! Then I'll for sure sleep over again!

…well I gotta go now, my mommy's waiting."

"Yup, see you later!"

"Mhmm, see you later! And don't forget your promise!" Sora then waved his hand, ran to his mom and went home.

And so ended Sora's first time sleeping over at Riku's place. With Sora knowing that he'd always be save, as long as Riku was there and Riku determined to keep his promise.

Both of them would have never thought, that a day would come where that promise was broken and they'd be standing on different sides. But that was still far away for both of them.

_The End_

~oOo~

Am I evil? …I didn't really want to end it like that, it just kinda happened _

The idea for the knight monsters just came to me, 'cause that's exactly what I once told my dad when I was little, and I know how terrifying it is for a 3-4 year old to sleep over at a friend's place, thought in my case my mom had to fetch me XD

Btw, I know kids that age don't act that adult – like, well, I didn't know that when I wrote it, but I still hope you enjoyed.

Anyways, this is my first Fanfiction, so:

_**Please leave Review and tell me how it was, criticism is welcome too! Just tell me what to do better! =)**_

21


End file.
